Thousands of teachers vent anger at Queen’s Park

Crowd

Calvise

U.S. Steel worker Frank Calvise was among thousands of teachers and unionized workers who rallied at Queen's Park to protest Premier Dalton McGuinty's legislation imposing a wage freeze for teachers.

Chabot

Teri Pecoskie/The Hamilton Spectator

Madeline Chabot, a teacher at Memorial public school in Stoney Creek, was among thousands of educators and unionized workers who rallied Tuesday at Queen's Park to protest Premier Dalton McGuinty's legislation imposing a wage freeze and curbing collective bargaining rights.

TORONTO Geanina Narancic had more on her mind than bargaining rights as she rallied against the minority Liberals’ controversial wage-freeze bill at Queen’s Park Tuesday.

“I just bought a house, I just got married,” said the family studies teacher, who has taught for four years at Sir John A. Macdonald high school. “As a new teacher at the bottom of the salary grid, this could really hurt me.”

Narancic was among more than 350 local educators and unionized workers who travelled to Toronto to protest legislation aimed at freezing teachers’ pay, cutting benefits and banning strikes and lockouts for two years.

The Grits recalled the legislature two weeks early to ram through a law that would force a new contract on teachers at a time when the government is faced with a $14.8-billion deficit. Premier Dalton McGuinty insists he had to act because if existing contracts roll over Sept. 1, salary increases for some teachers and continued banking of sick days will cost taxpayers an extra $473 million.

But teachers’ unions, such as the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, have slammed the bill, calling it a violation of democratic and collective bargaining rights.

“We’re here to show the Liberal government that we’re not going to tolerate this legislation without a fight,” said Lisa Hammond, president of the Hamilton-Wentworth branch of the ETFO.

Other local educators said they were at Queen’s Park to stand up for their right to negotiate contracts with their “employers” — school boards.

The Hamilton contingent also included about 30 members of the Steelworkers’ Union Local 1005, which made the trip as a show of solidarity.

Ron Wells, a vessel operator at U.S. Steel, said he was there to support the teachers’ unions as well as workers’ rights, more generally.

“If it happens in this sector, it could happen in the private sector too,” he warned.

Local 1005 president Rolf Gerstenberger agreed, saying it seems across the country, workers, teachers and the public sector are “all having their rights taken away.”

“It’s all being done, in our opinion, under the guise of austerity,” he said. “Anything the wealthy in this country need, they’re willing to put money into it, but education, health care and social services they’re ready to cut ... We’re here to oppose that and we’re hoping McGuinty and the other politicians get the message.”

At its peak, the crowd swelled to around 5,000 protesters. The throng began amassing mid-morning as McGuinty and MPPs held the legislature’s daily question period.

“We didn’t take the decision to bring in this legislation lightly,” Education Minister Laurel Broten said at the time.

Broten, who didn’t appear at the rally, later told reporters that the protesters had every right to gather Tuesday. Asked whether she was afraid to go out and face them, she said she has talked to them on “many occasions.”

“My message to teachers has been consistent, has been loud and clear,” she said. “We appreciate the work that you do. You do important work. We are simply asking at this point in time that we see a pause in terms of pay increase, that we have to make choices, that we have to put our students first.”

Broten’s bill would freeze teachers’ pay — except for seniority grid movement — impose three unpaid days off, halve the number of annual sick days to 10, stop unused sick days from being banked and cashed out at retirement, and ban strikes and lockouts for two years.

The legislation is based on a deal reached weeks ago with the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association and agreed to by Catholic boards in Toronto, York, Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk and Sault Ste Marie.

With Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak pledging his support, there little doubt it will pass — likely early next week.

But the NDP is questioning why the government is trying to push the bill through the legislature so quickly, since it’s retroactive to Sept. 1. There’s also no threat of job action that would jeopardize the start of the school year, since unions aren’t taking strike votes until mid-September.

New Democrat Peter Tabuns suggested the bill is in fact meant to divert voters’ attention to a nonexistent crisis in schools to help the Liberals win a pair of byelections in Vaughan and Kitchener-Waterloo on Sept. 6.

“Is the government ready to stop playing politics and work to get a solution that actually works for students, their parents and a public that’s fed up with paying the price for this government’s quest for a majority?” he asked McGuinty in the legislature.

Broten failed to get unanimous consent Tuesday to hold the final vote on the legislation without debate.